Boyhood
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke
Rated: R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use
The 2014 film Boyhood is one of the great
achievements in filmmaking. Since 2002, director Richard Linklater has been
filming his fictional family (Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater) every year, to make a coming of age film of epic
proportions; you literally see his cast age and grow up in front of you, from a six year old boy to a high school graduate. It's
a huge undertaking, both technically and cognitively. Yet, somehow,
Linklater not only weaves the years of the story together, but also a
consistent and interesting theme throughout.
While the movie has a pretty relaxed pace that requires some stilted dialogue to progress the story, it still has a strong voice about life and
growing up. In one of the opening scenes, Mason sees his mother confess
to a soon-to-be ex-boyfriend that being a mother was not the life she longed
for; she wants to be free, to do things for herself. From that point on, we see
Mason constantly trying to find freedom and control from people or situations
throughout his life, whether it's when his drunken stepfather cuts his hair
without his permission, or when a group of high school boys who berate him with
a false standard of masculinity, or when his teachers or bosses see a different
future for Mason that he doesn't want. In the end, however, Mason learns
that the point of your life isn't about trying to control the flow of time, but
simply to watch how it shapes us and embrace whatever freedom we are given
within it. Or, as the film beautifully says it, it's not about seizing
the moments but letting the moments seize you.
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